<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>let's get married by lingerlikeatattookiss</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928414">let's get married</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lingerlikeatattookiss/pseuds/lingerlikeatattookiss'>lingerlikeatattookiss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>long story short [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, they just love each other so much, this is incredibly niche</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:59:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,803</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928414</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lingerlikeatattookiss/pseuds/lingerlikeatattookiss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the quiet hours of morning, with the sun just barely over the horizon, Zuko decides that he wants to marry Katara.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>long story short [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2201010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>let's get married</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is heavily inspired by Mitski's cover of the Bleacher's song,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5zuvs8EZDY"> Let's Get Married</a>, which makes me believe in love everytime I hear it. It also draws upon the fake wedding scenes from Toradora and West Side Story.</p><p>This is technically a sequel to my one-shot, "tea parties after dark," however they can be read separately. This is also slightly more mature than the former, as it references sex and anxiety.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko had never minded getting up early. He enjoyed the quiet hours, when the sun’s rays are barely showing over the tops of the buildings nearby. In college, his natural disposition for waking before the rest of the world meant that early classes didn’t bother him. He had time for runs, meditating, eating breakfast and such. Now, more often than not, he uses the time to stay in bed.</p><p>This has everything to do with the person now sharing the bed with him. Coming down to the last few months of her final year as an undergraduate, Katara is used to spending long nights staring at her computer screen followed by trying to catch every last bit of sleep she can before she has to reenter the world again. Some nights, he doesn’t see her enter the bed, but always knows that she’ll be there when he awakes.</p><p>As warmth fills the room, Zuko rises onto his elbow, looking down at the sight before him. Katara’s long hair spills out on the pillows, while the rest of her body is curled up towards him, one hand resting beneath her head. She’d been living with him for over two months and sharing his bed even longer, but he still felt awe every time he looked over to see her beside him, completely at peace.</p><p>In this apartment, they’d carved out a place free of strained familial bonds; the ties that had been severed for some and restrung for others. It became an escape from the doubting words of men in power and the exhaustion of day-to-day life. The kitchen they shared their first kiss in would witness many more. The living room would see weekly movie nights, filled with popcorn and wandering hands, or makeout sessions in between hours of studying. The bedroom would become a place of worship, sacred to them both.</p><p>Katara isn’t the first person to share his bed regularly, but she is the only one he wants to wake up next to everyday. For the first time in his life, something came to him easily, progressing naturally with the passage of time. She simply walked in one day and it felt like she never left. Her mark was on every inch of the small living space. Her shoes next to his by the door, her toothbrush in his bathroom, her clothes in his drawers. It was only a matter of time before her lease was up and she moved in officially.</p><p>Sokka had teased them when he helped carry in Katara’s boxes a couple of months ago. “You guys might as well adopt a cat, the way you two act like a married couple.”</p><p>Zuko had laughed then, nodding along with his girlfriend’s reply, “Please, you and Suki are worse.”</p><p>Yet as he lies there, with nothing to interrupt his wild thoughts but the sounds of birds and early morning traffic, he finds himself replaying the second part of Sokka’s statement in his mind, wondering about all the possibilities it holds.</p><p>Next to him, he feels Katara shift, and he looks down again to see her eyelids flutter open and reveal his favorite shade of blue. “Good morning,” she greets him with a shy grin, her hand coming to his waist.</p><p>He absentmindedly runs his fingers through her hair, humming back a response, still preoccupied with the visions in his head. Seconds pass before he feels her tap a finger against his forehead. “What’re you thinking about?”</p><p>“Let’s get married.” He continues to play with her hair.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>He looks into her eyes, which are wide with surprise, “Let’s go get married.”</p><p>“Maybe you should go back to sleep. I think you’re delirious.”</p><p>Zuko’s hand stills in her loose curls and his voice is steady, “I’m more serious than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”</p><p>There’s silence. He sees Katara works through his proposition in her head and the weight of what he’d just said sinks in. Had he scared her off? They’d only been together for two years. She’d accepted him, his past and all, but that didn’t mean she wanted such commitment. The last thing he wants to do is pressure her or make her feel trapped.</p><p>He watches as she opens her mouth and chooses her next words carefully. Her thumb rubs circles into his skin, calming him down slightly. “I love you so much, but we’re still students, Zuko. I can’t see myself eloping, especially not while I’m still in college, and I don’t want to distract you from grad school with a wedding. We can wait.”</p><p>He presses his lips to her hairline. “Of course, I understand. And I could wait for you forever. I just got caught up in my thoughts.” When he was younger, he hadn’t even believed he would make it to adulthood, much less find himself wanting to spend every day with someone until their bodies are frail. Dreams of marriage had been out of the question for so long, and now that they are within his grasp, he doesn’t know how to contain himself.</p><p>“Believe me, I’ve thought about it too.” He raises his eyebrow but lets her continue, “And I’m sure we’ll think about it a lot more later. And I like where we are right now, we don’t need to rush.”</p><p>She’s right. He knows that she’s right, but he still can’t help but feel embarrassed for bringing it up.</p><p>He can feel Katara’s thoughtful gaze on him as he looks up at the ceiling, trying to come up with ways to retract his forthright statements. Suddenly, she says, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t practice.”</p><p>Zuko looks back at her, confusion etched onto his face, “Practice what?”</p><p>She does nothing but laugh at him while attempting to push him out of their bed. “Put on a shirt, you can’t get married looking like that.”</p><p>Playfully swatting her hands away, he climbs off the mattress, he walks towards the dresser, glancing down at his bare chest. “I happen to know for a fact that you especially like when I <em>look like this</em>.”</p><p>“Well yeah,” he hears from behind him as he gets a shirt. “But it’s simply not appropriate for this event.”</p><p>Pulling a t-shirt over his head, he turns back around to find to find Katara placing their white top sheet draped over her hair. The “veil” cascades down her shoulders and back, and is accompanied only by the navy t-shirt of his that she wore to bed the previous night and the blinding smile on her face. The sun rises higher behind her, like Zuko, it’s naturally drawn to her, and it surrounds her in its glow. His heart skips a beat.</p><p>“You said you wanted to get married today, so I assume that means you have your vows ready?”</p><p>He raises his chin, smirking at the challenge, “I do.”</p><p>“Good, you can go first,” she says through a yawn, her nose scrunching slightly. “You’re slightly more coherent than I am at this time of morning.”</p><p>“Well, you rise with the moon. I rise with the sun.”</p><p>“I wasn’t aware that my boyfriend is an aspiring poet.” Her smile is teasing, but he can see the faint blush that adorns her cheeks.</p><p>“Well, when I’m your husband, I’ll have to make it my goal to keep finding new ways to surprise you.”</p><p>They walk towards each other, meeting in the center of the room, directly in front of their bed. Katara’s veil is slipping a bit and there are bags under her eyes, and Zuko hasn’t seen anyone so beautiful before.</p><p>He imagines what this would be like at an actual ceremony, his sisters and mother watching and Katara’s family on the other side of the aisle. Their friends would be in the audience too, if not standing right beside them as they exchange their vows. He knows that he’ll look at Katara, dressed in her finest, and shed tears as she promises to accept him, scars and all.</p><p>Zuko takes her hands in his, bringing the two of them down on their knees before each other. He clears his throat and begins to recite the traditional vows he had helped Ikem rehearse for his mother’s wedding all those years ago.</p><p>
  <em>“This woman, I marry.<br/>
No matter what our health situation is,<br/>
I will love you,<br/>
respect you,<br/>
console you, and<br/>
help you until death.<br/>
Protecting fidelity, I swear.”</em>
</p><p>By the end, his voice had become thick with emotion, his feelings for Katara almost overwhelming. They only strengthen when she begins her own vows.</p><p>“<em>You are my husband.</em><br/>
<em>My feet shall run because of you.</em><br/>
<em>My feet shall dance because of you.</em><br/>
<em>My heart shall beat because of you.</em><br/>
<em>My eyes see because of you.</em><br/>
<em>My mind thinks because of you.</em><br/>
<em>And I shall love because of you.”</em></p><p>There is no officiant or audience to see them seal their love with a kiss. There are no thoughts of seating charts and making everything sure runs smoothly. It is only them, in their home, and Zuko could not ask for anything more.</p><p>Katara’s smile grows impossibly wider, and she lets out small laughs and he’s surprised to find his own laugh join hers, both too excited to even think properly. “You know, I think I fell in love with you the moment you opened the door in a tiara and invited me to tea with your little sister. It was quite a bold move, Sozin.”</p><p>“It was, and I’m very glad that it paid off,” he tells her, feigning seriousness. “Besides, Azula would’ve never let me live had I gotten too flustered to invite a pretty girl in when the opportunity presented itself.”</p><p>“Oh, so you were just saving your own ass,” she teases. “I see how it is.”</p><p>“Don’t get carried away, I was a goner the moment you sat beside me in class.”</p><p>He’s already spent three years hopelessly loving her, and he’ll do anything to make sure that he spends every year after doing the same.</p><p>Katara cups her hands around his face, letting her fingers rest on his scar. He tilts his head towards her touch, pressing a kiss onto her palm, “Zuko, we may not get married today or in the next year, but I promise you now that I will spend the rest of my life with you by my side.” She leans in closer, bringing her lips to his again. The kiss is short, but he can feel the assurance that lies within it, filled with hope for the years to come.</p><p>He sits back on his heels, engraving the sight in front of him into his memory, and thinks back to her brother’s words once again. “Well, in the meantime, how do you feel about adopting a cat?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Zuko's vows are a revised version of those used at <a href="https://www.seiyaku.com/seiyaku/vows/japanese.html">Western-style Japanese wedding ceremonies</a> and Katara's are a <a href="https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-ideas/native-american-wedding-blessing">love song that derives from Inuit tribes</a>. I wanted to incorporate their cultural influences into the wedding, however very little was found in the brief interent searches I did, so if these are improper or offensive in any way, I can definitely change the vows.</p><p>I hope you enjoyed :) Comments, kudos, and bookmarks are always greatly appreciated!!</p><p>Also- if literally anyone is interested, in these one-shots, Katara is studying Environmental Science and Zuko is a Chemical Engineer. She's one year younger than him, and he's in grad school at this point.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>